Should You Teach Your Child to Swim… or Choose a Program? | Instructor to Parent Ep.1

So you're a parent and you're considering putting your child inside swim lessons. You don't know what to do, you don't know where to start, and you don't know how to prepare for this journey that you are about to go on. Maybe you're deciding if you should teach your child to swim yourself, or maybe you want to enter them into a program. Well, I'm going to give you three things that you absolutely need to either do or consider to help you make that decision. Welcome everybody to our channel and this series Instructor to Parent, how to prepare your child for learning to swim. Make sure to subscribe to our channel so you can watch more videos, not just like this one, but watch me actually teach kids to swim of all ages. I teach survival swim, conventional swim, everything. We do it all here at Superhero Swim Academy in South Florida. Number one, it's the actual decision on whether or not you're going to go to a program and have somebody else teach your child or you are going to teach them yourselves. And the best way to determine if you are capable of teaching your own child is to think about it internally. You need to think about it from a standpoint of can you handle your child maybe drinking a little water on accident or inhaling a little water on accident. The water can be a very, the water is a very dangerous place, but if you play in there safely and you're getting your child underneath the water, you're comfortable making them do things, maybe, maybe pushing them a little bit harder than you would in any other place. Cause again, it's a dangerous place and they need to know what happens when they fall in. If you think you're capable of that, then teaching your child to swim may be the avenue for you. If you're not, then it's important to realize that right now. And you need to start looking for a program to get your child educated in learning to swim. Number two, understanding the next step. If you've decided to teach your own child to swim, then you need to start educating yourself on how to actually do that. And that's why we have thousands of videos between all of our channels, teaching you how to teach your child to swim. I guarantee you, you will find something helpful within our videos. We also have courses to help you do that. You can find that in the link in the description below. If you decide to go to a program and have somebody teach your child for you, it's really important that you do free trial or pay for only one class, maybe even shadow and go watch a couple lessons before you decide what program to go with. It's really important that you choose a quality program with an experienced instructor that can help get your child swimming to the best of their ability as quickly as possible. Not every program teaches the same way and that's okay. You just want a coach that loves and cares about your child so they can teach them this super important skill. Number three, and probably one of the most valuable, is preparing your child for whatever step you have decided to take. If you decided to teach your own child to swim, you need to start preparing them in the bathtub, talking to them about it. If they understand what you're saying, depends on their age of course, start telling them they're old enough to learn how to swim. It's time to learn how to swim. Start preparing their mind for that process and make sure that when you do step into teaching them the skill of swimming, you do it in a slow and fun way. Not every child is going to learn at the same pace and you being the parent means that child knows how to push you and test you. So it's really important that maybe you pray for patience before you get started. If you are going to a program, you may want to consider doing a couple things in the water with your child to just prepare them for what the coach is going to do. If you're not comfortable doing that or maybe you don't know how to swim as the parent, that is okay. I do recommend going to the program if the child is of age. You can put them in the class, the group lessons or the private lessons, whatever fits better for your family and your schedule. Or what I always recommend to new parents and new students is doing the parent and me classes. Parent and me classes is one of the most valuable things you can do if your child is new to the pool or the water in general. It's important that they have a wonderful experience within the first couple times of going to the pool and sometimes bringing you as the parent into the water and the coach showing you things that you can be doing and practicing. It's not only going to help the child get more confident and comfortable in the water, but it's also going to make you more confident and comfortable allowing your child to learn how to swim. So no matter which path you decide to take, it's important to prepare not only the child, but yourself. And if you need help doing that, that's what our channel and our page is all about. Make sure to subscribe to our channel to learn more things about preparing your child for lessons and learning to swim. And if you need any help getting your child there, you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them all. I'll see you in the next Superhero Swim Lesson.